


Road Full of Promise

by purple_skies



Category: Runaways (TV 2017)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-18
Updated: 2018-03-18
Packaged: 2019-04-04 00:01:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14007711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purple_skies/pseuds/purple_skies
Summary: A second later she was next to him, and it was the closest they'd been in what felt like a lifetime but was really not even 24 hours, and even though her arm wasn't quite touching his, he could feel the heat radiating off of her and how could it only be a one time thing.





	Road Full of Promise

"So..."

Chase glanced up from his perch at the back of the van, legs swinging over the bumper, to find Gert approaching him slowly, hands folded into her back pockets, bright green wig hair covering half her face.

"Gert," he said stupidly, because he was surprised, given their last one-on-one conversation, to find her speaking to him at all, especially without the presence or pressure from anyone else. But the gang was scattered around their hide out in the woods, choosing to take a break to panic individually about the mess their lives have become.

She smiled up at him, a little sheepishly, and raised her eyebrows with a slight nod to the spot next to him.

He couldn't stop his face from splitting into the widest grin as he pat the spot with his hand, welcoming her up.

A second later she was next to him, and it was the closest they'd been in what felt like a lifetime but was really not even 24 hours, and even though her arm wasn't quite touching his, he could feel the heat radiating off of her and _how could it only be a one time thing_?

After several moments of silence, of Chase forcing himself not to look at her and instead stare out into the woods surrounding him, she shifted next to him and started again with, "So."

Chase turned to look at her. She was staring at her shoes, and it was hard to tell with all the green but he could have sworn she was blushing. Her brow was furled very tightly, and it occurred to Chase then that he was about to have a conversation he both desperately needed and wanted to avoid at all costs.

He thought the polite thing to do might be to offer her a way out.

He wondered if that's what she thought she was doing when she said it was a one time thing, that it was biology.

The thought was enough to make him pause, and in that time she looked at him sharply and said with one breath, "I'm sorry about how I reacted last night."

It took all of his willpower not to shift his hand onto hers, she was gripping the edge of the van so tight. "You don't have to apologize," he said instead. "If anything, I should--"

"Don't," she interrupted him quickly, turning to face him more fully. "Please, don't. The only thing that could possibly make me feel more stupid right now would be if you told me you regret it."

"I don't--" he said quickly, hand shooting out on its own accord to cover hers. They both dropped their gazes and stared. Chase tried to curl his fingers around hers, but her hand remained planted, unyielding.

He shifted his gaze back to her face, but she was still staring, wide-eyed, at their hands, as if she couldn't quite understand what he was trying to do.

"Gert," he breathed, and her eyes flicked back to his. "I don't...I don't want to regret what happened. But I--I don't want--"

"I know!" She said sharply, laughing in a strangely hysterical way and snatching her hand back. "It was the end of the world and you were there, and I was there, and you didn't think it would--"

" _No_ ," he said even more sharply, frustration finally breaking through the fog of this conversation. "That's not even in the _hemisphere_ of what I'm trying to say right now, Gert!"

She blinked at him, clearly taken aback, and he didn't give her time to respond. "I don't want _you_ to regret it. That's what I was going to say. It sucks so much, sitting here, thinking that this thing that happened means something so much bigger, and not knowing if you feel the same way and are trying to cover it up, or if you really do regret it, because Gert the last thing I have ever wanted is to hurt you."

He could feel his cheeks burning. This was probably the most vulnerable he has ever been with anyone. And Gert just kept staring at him, mouth slightly agape, as if he was speaking a different language. He might as well have been. He was going on pure instinct now. Saying things his brain hadn't even fully processed, but as he said them he knew them to be true. "I have been losing my goddamn mind trying to figure out what kind of hold it is you have on me. It's like a tiny piece of you has been at the back of my brain since we were kids, and I've been just ignoring it for so long, trying to be this whole other _person_ for my dad or for my friends or whatever, and then suddenly I'm with you again and our lives are going to hell and all I can think about is what it would be like to kiss you. And now I know what it's like to kiss you. And it sucks so much knowing that I might never get to kiss you again." He half-laughed. "And these are the things I'm thinking about, while we're stranded without money, or shelter, or any kind of plan. I'm sitting here thinking how _stupid_ into you I am, and how I've fucked up so many chances, and how you deserve something better than an end-of-the-world quickie in the middle of a high school dance, an event I'm sure you find to be founded in patriarchy and heteronormativity and a bunch of other shit I don't totally understand, but I'd love for you to teach me about one day, and--"

"Chase!" Gert interrupted him finally, mercifully. His eyes refocused to suddenly realize she was smiling widely, incredulously. "An end-of-the-world quickie?"

He grinned, then winced. "That's the part of all of that you're going to focus on?"

Gert shrugged, then shifted, pressing her shoulder against his. The contact sent shockwaves down his spine. "It's the easiest," she said quietly.

He snorted. "And what does that say about our lives right now?"

He felt, more than heard, her laugh against him. He leaned back to wrap his arm around her, and she tucked her head into his chest, humming slightly.

They sat in relative silence for several minutes, Chase reveling in the closeness, in Gert's calmness, in the fact that he'd spilled his guts out and then some, and she was still here.

And then finally, in the smallest of voices, she said, "I don't remember what it feels like to not be into you." He tensed, but she didn't sit up, instead buried herself even further into his chest, practically speaking into his shirt. "I just freaked out, after. And I thought--"

She didn't finish her thought. She didn't really have to, Chase could read her well enough. So he reached down and tugged her chin, bringing her gaze up to his.

“Can I kiss you?”

She nodded.

He hesitated. “Can I kiss you again after that?”

She laughed. “Don’t be weird.”

“And like, at least once more after that,” Chase said grinning.

“Oh my god—“

He kissed her mid-eye roll.


End file.
